Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index up +0.99% in September (+4.6% YTD)

Opalesque Industry Update - Hedge fund managers mostly reported gains in September, with the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index up +0.99% for the month. September strategy returns are very similar to the August results, most strategies reported positive September returns, with the lingering exception of Managed Futures funds (-0.82%). The GGHFI’s gain of +0.99% lags global equity returns in the S&P 500 Total Return (+2.58%), and MSCI World Equity (+2.52%) equity indices. 68% of constituent funds in the GGHFI ended the month with gains.

Global Index Strategy Highlights:

Central Bank announcements in the US and EU again led equity markets higher in September. On average, Long/Short Equity funds reported their best month since February (+2.02%), making them the best performing group in September. In a reversal of the previous two months' trend, Growth funds (+2.60%) outperformed both Value (+2.07%) and Opportunistic funds (+1.73%). Short-Biased funds reported another month of weak results (-4.61%), still poorly positioned to perform in this bullish environment.

Long-Short Credit managers continued their streak as the best performing strategy year to date. Their September return of +1.06% brings them to a YTD result of +8.59%. On a 3 year annualized basis, these funds also lead the pack, with an average return of +9.93%.

Funds focused on Managed Futures reported another negative return in September (-0.82%) after returning disappointing results in August (-0.35%). Many managers struggled against declining commodity markets.

Regionally, funds investing in Emerging Markets (+3.43%) strongly outperformed those investing in Developed Markets (+0.76%) on average in September. Despite declining equity markets in China, managers investing in Emerging Asia returned the strongest results on a regional basis, gaining +4.54%. In the developed markets, North American focused funds led the way, gaining +1.55% on average. They were closely followed by Developed Asian funds (+1.53%).